Friday, October 30, 2009

As trios go, this is somewhat of a motley crew, although there is a sense of more intelligence there than the Stooges (Moe's, not Iggy's), and a bit less flippancy than the Marxes. If they sing after a long day's labor, I bet they chant and trill in the same octave range as the Bee Gees; maybe not as high, but I'm sure they do it with less urgency. The Bee Gees were always a bit on the desperate side; ...but I digress. Although I intend to have their faces remain a bit less defined than Mr. Fellow's, I will likely add a a bit more specifics to each.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Decima now has more of the gesture I was aiming at with her arms pulling us up and around the top of the image, and the life cord dropping us back down to Nona and then across bottom... Hopes are that Decima herself is not following this blog, as the extended arm length, while rhythmically vital to the flow of the piece, implies that she is more simian in stature than she may want. (we'll need to check her knuckles for callouses)...word gets out and she may cajole Morta to cut MY cord earlier than planned. [ shhhhh] I changed the angle on Morta's hand/scissors to make more sense, and have started exploring the specifics on Mr. Fellow... Value structure will need pushing, and more details to come.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Head lice and dandruff are kid's play when compared to our poor fellow here, but according to any run of the mill oracle, this process was not only necessary, but de rigueur in classical antiquity... you couldn't be seen without it. Here we have our three fates busily fashioning out yet another lifespan: Morta is now cutting at a more appropriate spot while maintaining her far-right staging. Decima measures away on top, and Nona spins on. I can't help but wonder exactly what Decima does with the life cord after Morta has made her cut (?) one assumes that she continues to measure and pull, and ends up with the other end. Does the fellow keel over once the cord is cut? Will she then coil it up like a garden hose and place it neatly on his face? Does it get used as a belt for their gowns? Perhaps when no one is watching the three of them jump rope with it...? These are serious concerns of which I shan't do a thing about.

The gesture of Decima's arms and posture below will likely be adapted to the final as it pulls the viewer up and through the composition better than the more finished image. This was a prelim to the prelim above.

Monday, October 12, 2009

The Fates have always straddled that spooky cum intriguing place in my imagination. While the Yankees and Santa are in the final inking process, I will be simultaneously hashing out a new composition. The first drawings below were started earlier in the year and abandoned as I was not completely satisfied with where they were going, below are two of the better incarnations: There's a slight problem, I realize, with the order of of the action. Atropos, the cutter, (I do not mean to imply that she takes a razor to her veins here) is doing the cutting at what would be in fact the beginning of the life cord... which makes Lachesis, the measurer, rather pointless. (I find this problem in many traditional renderings of these three) Atropos will need to reach in and cut closer to the distaff, and Clotho's spinning. However, she should remain on the right side as she is the end of the story, and I expect the reader to read from left to right.

Earlier prelim for what became above. The Roman equivalent of their names are Nona, Decima, and Morta. I think I'll use these as they feel more comfortable to my ear. I'm more Latin than I am Greek. You can tell by my palliditity. Here the visual weight was too equally spread among the three fates. A better balance was achieved above.

In some more recent explorations below, I am considering incorporating a head of supposedly the person whose lifespan is being determined. There much more to hash out here, but it may add a needed complexity missing from the earlier studies.

The two images below are various patching together of vague compositional ideas which may take you a bit of time to sort out what's happening. The process of concluding this will be more rewarding than the images themselves, so if that doesn't work for you, then just skip this part.